Greetings from San Luis Obispo! and the nice little youth hostel here!
Todays was the time to head back down the coast to tackle the northern half of the Pacific Surfliner mostly by city bus. I debate taking an early bus to get to Paso Robles at 10:40 but decide to take the Coast Starlight instead for cheapness and a less early departure time. The thruway bus connection leaves San Fran shortly after 7:00pm to Oakland, a Baby Bullet Express CalTrain leaves for San Jose at 8:59am getting to Sacromento at 9:58 just in time for the 10:07 departure of the southbound Coast Starlight. The choice to me is obvious. I start walking down to CalTrain and stop at the ferry building (the main Amtrak bus connection station with an agent) for my ticket that the agent issues me slightly confused since I am there at 8:30 for a train she assumes I will never make. Worried about missing CalTrain I hop on Muni-N line down the Embarcadero and notice I have just $1.50 left on my old TransLink card. Consulting my iPhone I learn I can go into debt for a one ride as long as there is a $1.25 minimum on a card, so I tap on and have an uneventful ride Baby Bullet Express ride on a galley car down to San Jose arriving at 9:57 slightly early and planning to retire my now historic TransLink card (now their called clipper cards and actually used) in debt. I notice that the Coast Starlight #11 has already arrived and calmly walk over to track 1 to board the train, happy I had stopped at the Ferry Building to pick up my ticket. I am greeted by two coach attendants I recognize from two days earlier and notice that I am getting on the same exact consist as my trip north which makes sense with a night to and from Seattle and one in the yard there. I also know the attendants make four-day rotations on this route so this all makes sense. There is the actual sleeper named for George Pullman and no PCL car but the CCC instead.
The conductor’s voice I recognize and he begins giving us a sarcastic narration for the trip, discussing the towns were going through. The worst is his joke about a solar eclipse at 12:27 when we go through a tunnel. I think I had him with his corny jokes on my last Coast Starlight trip two years ago. We get to Salinas 20 minutes early and I get a full photo essay of the depot waiting room with impressive murals and the historic cars along the northern half of the platform. I spend the trip at my seat catching up on my TripLogs and looking out the window going through this valley of California. We arrive in El Paso del Robles a little before 1:38pm and some passengers open their own door to try and have a quick cigarette, which results in fury from the conductor. I get off and get my photo essay of the station, a hub of a small local bus operation and wait for the 2:20 bus down to San Luis Obispo. I take this and transfer straight through to the bus down to the mall at Pismo Beach where I transfer to a shuttle to Grover Beach getting there a bit after 4:00pm. Using my iPhone I notice that the Coast Starlight is running two hours late so I stick and wait it out (I later learn from an Australian staying in my youth hostel that it was delayed due to ‘mechanical difficulties’ as she put it just outside of Burbank/Bob Hope Airport and they sat for two hours. I mention my train hitting someone from yesterday). At that point I wanted to try and get down to Guadalope to get that station also via bus. The 5:42 express run is late so I miss the last shuttle of the night. That driver (as I take his bus back) informs me that Guadalupe is extremely unsafe and why would you want to go there at night anyway? He is a former long-haul truck driver turned bus driver when fuel shot up and interesting to talk to. My plan for Guadalupe was to take the evening Central Coast Surfliner up. I check into my small but cute hostel and go find some dinner in the surprisingly happening downtown San Luis Obispo before going back and chatting with some other guests into the night, slightly happy with my time to explore the city instead of Guadalupe.
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